ENLIGHTENED

Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Forever?

I walk hand in hand along the beach with Austin. Turns out I came the night before he was coming home to surprise me.

I'm lucky that I didn't miss him.

So we are now on our baecation, spending time together in the beautiful Maldives.

"What are you thinking of?" he asks me, probably noticing that I'm deep in thought.

"How lucky I am to have you." I say and he hugs me.

"I'm the lucky one, I got the ice queen to melt." He says, smiling.

"I was not an ice queen, you were just annoying and frustrating as fuck." I say, pushing him away and rolling my eyes.

"Whatever, want ice-cream?" he asks and I nod a big yes. He buys us ice cream and we sit down, eating the ice cream while looking into each other's eyes.

"Who is Trisha?" I ask and he freezes before he feeds me some ice cream.

"The only woman I dated before you. I loved her with everything I had. I gave her anything she requested. She took advantage of me and was even cheating on me. I found out and lets just say I made everyone I came across to pay for her sins. I took full advantage of women, spoiling them as well, and I would discard them as soon as I'm done." He opens up, hiding nothing.

"So what changed?" I ask, wondering how we ended up here.

"Let's just say you were also annoying and frustrating as fuck. You felt like I took advantage of you after our one night stand and you resisted me the following morning. Fuck, you led me on and I couldn't get you off my mind ever since. I felt like you had taken advantage of me. Each time I tried forgetting you, the more you would come to mind. I just had to be with you. I hated how unfazed you seemed with my looks and actions. Other women throw themselves at me, but not you." He says, holding my hand gently.

"Andrea, I want this to be something that will last forever." He says and I gasp, not expecting him to say such.

"Forever?" I ask and he nods a yes.

"I want you to be the mother of my children. I want you to be Mrs West one day." He says and my heart swells with love.

"Awh baby." I gush, kissing his cold lips because of the ice cream.

"But first, you need to meet my family." He says and I blush, nervousness suddenly making its way through to my heart.

"Do you think they will like me?" I ask, pouting.

"Oh that I don't know, only one way of finding out." He shrugs his shoulders.

I roll my eyes at him. So much for encouragement.

"You also have to meet my family." I say and he shrugs.

"You do know what my family is well known for, right?" I ask and he raises an eyebrow at me.

We finish the remaining ice-cream and start walking to our chalet which is over the ocean.

"Obviously." He says, and I sigh, glad that he seems okay with it.

We enter our chalet.

"Good because many of the guys I almost dated in the past ran away because of my family's reputation." I say and he frowns.

"Really?" he asks, seeming surprised.

"Yes." I say, going to a my smaller luggage which has a case in it with my ammunition in case I must protect myself.

I take the case out. I open the case but Austin can't see it because he is pouring some wine for us.

"Why would they run away from a family that is well known for its  construction prowess." He says closing the wine bottle and I freeze, realizing that he doesn't know.

He turns around to find me frozen, bent over my favorite gun with its silencer already inserted.

I look at him and he looks at the contents of the brief case, shock taking over his features.

I take out my gun, running my index finger along its length before putting it back inside the case which I leave open.

"What are you doing with a gun? And one of that caliber?" he asks and I take the glass of wine out of his hand, taking a generous sip. This is the type of caliber that can easily shoot through a wall, with ease. Try to imagine what it could do if it tears through a hunan being?

"I see you know nothing about my family." I say, taking his glass and pouring his wine into my glass.

"You guys are in construction or am I wrong?" he asks and I take a sit before gesturing for him to sit as well.

"The accounting company as well as the construction company are fronts we use to explain where our extreme wealth comes from." I say and he nods for me to carry on.

"We are a mafia family Austin. Mafia Cavali." I say and he freezes, looking at me in shock.

Then he starts laughing as if I cracked a joke.

"Babe, you're funny, is it april fools day already? That's a fake gun right. You're funny." He says, getting up and taking the gun in his hands and firing a shot at the window and the whole window shatters into pieces of glass at the force, the shards of glass decorating the floor.

That's when he realizes that he fired a real shot.

He slowly turns around and looks at me and before he can utter a word, my guards barge in, holding guns up. Pointing them at him.

He gasps in shock not expecting an army of body guards to come in.

"Princess Cavali, are you okay?" the senior guard asks and I nod, dismissing them.

I stand up and I take the gun from Austin before he fires a shot that may kill someone in the next chalet.

I put my gun away along with it's briefcase.

"Baby, what just happened?" he asks.

"My father will never allow me to travel without protection so everywhere I go, I'm followed but my guards don't trail me in the most obvious way. If I'm at a restaurant, they'll be there, chatting and eating too. If I'm at a club, they will be clubbing too while keeping a close eye on me." I say and he nods in understanding.

"So this Mafia thing isn't a joke, it's true?" he asks and I nod.

"Will it be a problem?" I ask him.

"If you shoot me, yes." He says and I laugh at him.

"Now why would I shoot the love of my life?" I ask, getting up and walking to him.

I wrap my arms around his torso and I look up into his green eyes before kissing him.